Brenda wrote:
>What surprises me is that although there is a piece on the Patient Bill of
Rights (see below) there is no mention of the >Association of Trial Lawyers
of America (the #2 PAC in terms of giving - 86% of which goes to Dems) and
how their giving >relates to the battle over limiting liability damages.
Oh geez - they are all over the place! I never knew about PACs until I went
to work for a government contractor in the early 80s. All the employees
started getting official notices telling them to contribute to the company
PACs. I thought it was so strange and just a bit unseemly, seeing as how
they were roping in the employees to cough up the money and the fact that
they were a taxpayer-funded defense company. The monies were split equally
between the Democratic and Republican parties. If an employee did not agree
to contribute, they would continue, with increasing pressure, to send them
additional solitications. The tone of these solicitations was almost
intimidating - like a "do it or else" command from on high. Since I was a
newbie I asked some of my workmates about it and their attitude was like "of
course you do it or else, we've always done this, what's the problem?" Not
that I'm unrealistic - if the system has come to the point where giving
money to politicians is simply the cost of doing business, what can you do?
But with entities who receive all their funding from the government and who
are bound by so many government regulations concerning propriety and ethics,
this just seemed somehow "off" to me.
Kakki
